This is an excerpt from Chapter 6 in Sinner Saint: A Surprising Primer to the Christian Life (1517 Publishing, 2025). Sinner Saint is available today from 1517 Publishing.
On its journey from Byzantium to Constantinople to Istanbul, this special place helps us understand the broader arc of Christian history, which goes on until Christ's return.
We needn’t fear statistics and studies as palm readings into a certain future. God is God, and his Spirit is alive through his Word.

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The number forty calls to remembrance narratives of God’s great acts of redemption, but also our conformity to and participation in those narratives.
Regularly reading and hearing God’s Word helps us to keep a song in our hearts.
The driving impulse of Lent isn’t so much “giving up” things as it is “putting on” something.
He was rooted in his own tradition but gracious with others when they wanted to learn about his faith or their own.
A “good death” and “good life” are not accomplished through personal striving but are grasped by faith in the promises of God.
Ever Heard of Candlemas?
God gives his church a story that helps to make sense of this life.
It would serve us well to embrace the beauty of our diversity within the unity of the body of Christ.
Do our petitions move God?
This feast is the Gospel, “the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes.”
Your heavenly Father has not purchased you with gold or with silver but with the most valuable currency in the universe; the blood of God.
Can you imagine Christmas from creation’s point of view?